Overview

The website TED.com offers free short presentations called TED Talks, which cover a variety of interesting subjects. One of the talks is titled The Happy Planet Index. In it, Nic Marks comments that we regularly measure and report economic data on countries, such as gross national product, when we really ought to be measuring the well-being of the people in the countries. He calls this measure “Happiness,” and the larger the number in a country, the greater the level of happiness, health, and well-being. In addition, Marks believes we ought to be measuring the ecological footprint per capita of the country, with larger numbers indicating greater use of resources (such as gas and electricity) and more damage to the planet. Both variables are quantitative (continuous).

Prompt

For this short paper assignment, complete the following:

1. For the graph, interpret what the graph is telling us about happiness and ecological footprint, as described above.
2. Estimate and provide a range (minimum to maximum value), with a width no more than 0.2, for where you think the correlation statistic falls and support your decision with an explanation of the data points you see. Note: You are being asked to estimate the correlation statistic, you do not have to calculate the exact value.
3. What could affect the size of the correlation statistic?
   1. In regard to the actual data points (hint: what are we assuming about the data?)
   2. In regard to how the variables were measured (i.e., what information is used to define them, as well as other potential information not considered?)